Vacation...

You'd think I would have blogged everyday of our great vacation, but I've been on vacation. Here are the highlights:
Day 1
Flew to CA. Went to In-N-Out, Susie's Deals, Disneyland. Drove to Ventura at 9...felt like 11. Our kids were exhausted. But, we made it. Got in bed. Davis threw up in the middle of the night. We prayed....Lord please let it be because he was tired...not a stomach virus.
Day 2
God answered our prayer. It must have been something he ate. We drove the short distance to Santa Barbara. Shopped, ate lunch at an open air Jeannine's, had ice cream, rented a surrey and pedaled around the beach. Stopped to watch the skateboarders at the skateboard park. "It's only been an hour on the surrey? No wonder they give you the 2nd hour free. They know you'll be worn-out." We returned the surrey, with 1/2 an hour left. Went to the beach. The kids were like magnets. God's playground is the best. Ate at Moby Dicks...not our favorite, but it was located at the end of the pier. We saw dolphins from there.
Day 3
Drove to Beverly Hills. Pat has done a great job organizing all of this. He flew us for free, and we've stayed for free most of the nights. This particular night was the best. We stayed at the Beverly Hilton. It doesn't look great from the outside, but it is beautiful on the inside. Our room made the kids ooh and ahh. We window shopped on Rodeo Drive, then took pictures along this gorgeous park-like walkway on the way back. Brittlea and Crislynn have been working on a music video the whole time, so they have had lots of really cool places to "shoot" their video. The family swam at the pool. I read a book and sipped iced tea...all the while looking for movie stars. We didn't see any.
That night we went to In-n-Out at UCLA, then walked around the fun shops. We had ice cream at Diddy Riese...the most amazing deal ever. They make an ice cream sandwich with your choice of cookie and your choice of ice cream - all for the low price of $1.50!! So fun...

Pat and I left the kids in the hotel room for a few minutes while we went to sit at the pool. I was overwhelmed by the hollowness of it all as we sat there and listened to Michael Jackson's songs playing in the background. No wonder actors and people who live here get distracted by everything that really doesn't matter. There is much to distract them. I was being drawn in, too, wishing we had more money, wishing for a better hairstyle, new clothes, a skinnier body and I know better! I had read Colossians 2:8 before we left home, but it meant so much more to me when I read it again while in Beverly Hills: "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ."

How easy it is for that to happen. I'm grateful that God knows right where we are.

I'll write more about the trip tomorrow. We leave on Wednesday. I think this is the longest vacation I've ever taken. It's been fun, but it will be good to get home. I'm just dreading the Texas heat! Still, there's no place like home.